Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) – Peter Mutharika, candidate for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Tuesday’s Malawi presidential elections, could become the next president if unofficial exit polls hold, booting out his archrival President Joyce Banda.
Unofficial results, monitored from the 4,475 polling centres across the country, indicate a clear lead for the 74-year-old Washington State University constitutional law professor.
But Malawi Electoral Commission Chairman, Supreme Court of Appeal judge Justice Maxon Mbendera, said the electoral body will start announcing when vote counting will hit the 30 percent mark.
“We will not be rushed, we want to do a thorough job,” he said.
Counting started at the end of polling at 4GMT in areas where polling started on time.
Meanwhile, peace returned to the commercial capital, Blantyre, the scene of ugly scenes on Tuesday when angry voters torched booths and smashed computers and other polling materials in protest against delays in starting polling. Voting was postponed to Wednesday in a number of polling centres in Blantyre and the capital, Lilongwe.
Mbendera warned that the electoral body will cancel elections in all centers where violence will recur.
“The police and the army have tightened security in all polling centres; the Commission condemns in the strongest terms the tendency of some overzealous persons to disturb polling. May I send a warning that the Commission will not hesitate to cancel elections in all centres where violence recurs. Let me emphasise that this is an electoral offence and perpetrators will be prosecuted,” he said.
The voters on Wednesday queued peacefully to cast their ballots, but under the watchful eye of police and soldiers. But in some centres in Lilongwe, polling was yet to open by late afternoon.
Photo: Malawi Voice
